NFCC presents AMERICAN SPIRITUAL Thursday, Nov. 17 at Van H. Priest Auditorium featuring Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem

Guest appearance by Madison’s own Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church Choir

MADISON, FL – The North Florida Community College Artist Series continues its 2016-2017 season with American Spiritual, an uplifting performance featuring Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, on Thursday, Nov. 17 at Van H. Priest Auditorium. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Show begins at 7 p.m.

In American Spiritual, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem lead concert audiences in a bona fide revival. There’s no tent, no potluck dinner — and no preaching, unless you count the band’s uproarious and wise stories. Instead, this charismatic quartet administers songs and tales that explore and revive the human spirit. From a lush setting of Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar” to old American shape note hymns, prison work songs, blues, gospel and original compositions, American Spiritual, draws from 200 years of roots music to find songs that uplift and connect.

“This quartet has a rare gift for fashioning hip, sleek sounds from the solid cloth of vintage American music,” said The Boston Globe and All Music Guide said that the quartet is “Bursting with fun and exuberance.”

With infectious camaraderie, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem easily coax audiences to join their spine-tingling, rafter-shaking harmonies, clap to roaring fiddle tunes and open their hearts to songs of love and loss. This is American Spiritual — in which big questions are asked, few are answered, much harmony is sung, and a joyful string band is let loose to dispense its good medicine.

As a special addition and community outreach activity, Madison’s own Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church Choir will make a guest appearance during the performance. Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem will also be traveling educational and community outreach activities to Pinetta Elementary School and Madison Health and Rehabilitation Center on Nov. 17.

Rani Arbo, lead singer and fiddler for the band, says, “We are excited for our first trip to Northern Florida! We are really looking forward to not just to the public show on Thursday, but also getting to know the community through an extended residency that includes a visit to a school, a medical center, and collaboration with a local choir. Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem has been together for 16 years and we have always put a priority on creating community. It’s a real blessing to work with a presenter, like North Florida Community College, that helps us extend that community-building outside of the auditorium!”

Tickets are on sale now in the NFCC College Advancement office or by calling 850-973-1653. Purchasing tickets in advance is recommended; limited tickets may be available at the door.

Upcoming performances of the 2016-2017 NFCC Artist Series are Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas on Friday, Dec. 9; Ragtime and Boogie-Woogie Pianist Bob Milne on Jan. 20; the Russian String Orchestra on Feb. 3; and The Peking Acrobats® on Feb. 23. More information is available at www.nfc.edu or by contacting the NFCC College Advancement Office at (850) 973-1653 or [email protected].

###